Integrated circuit devices, such as field programmable gate array (FPGA) devices and application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), may perform a wide array of functions and as such, may be employed in different systems. When used in a larger system, an integrated circuit device may communicate with other external elements (e.g., another integrated circuit device, a memory module, etc.) via a variety of input-output standards.
Generally, an integrated circuit device may include input-output circuitry that is adaptable to support different operating speeds or input-output voltages. As performance requirements increase, integrated circuit devices need to be able to handle and process signals with increasingly high data rates (e.g., in excess of 40 Gigabits per second (Gbps)). High-speed transceiver (transmitter and receiver) channels in an integrated circuit are usually used to communicate with external circuits using different protocols.
Different transmission protocols such as single-ended and differential transmission systems are often used in transceiver circuitry. Compared to single-ended transmission, differential transmission (where a pair of signals of equal and opposite polarity is transmitted for every bit sent) may be less susceptible to noise, and as such, may be widely used.
An example of a differential system includes the Low Voltage Differential Signaling (LVDS) input-output standard. However, in a high-speed (e.g., a design running at a speed greater than 2 Gbps) multi-channel system where multiple transceiver channels are bonded together, receiver channel-to-channel skew (RCCS) may adversely affect the performance of the system.
It is within this context that the embodiments described herein arise.